Laser energy incident upon an imaging system leads to various levels of image artifacts, up to and including complete blanking or washout of the collected image. This is due to laser energy scattered off optical surfaces and spread across the detecting focal plane of the imager. In addition, the high intensity of the laser energy incident upon the focal plane may lead to saturation artifacts, such as blooming or bleeding in the detection device.
In an exemplary scenario, an imager disposed in an aircraft may be is collecting radiation and providing video images of a target of interest. As a counter-measure against the imager, a laser beam may be aimed at the focal plane array (FPA) of the imager to jam the imager and render it useless. The laser radiation may be scattered across the focal plane array, leading to a saturated image and an inability of the imager to distinguish between the target and features of the target.
The present invention provides a system and method for processing the unwanted laser energy, removing the laser energy, and reconstructing the scene image information.